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These records document the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance—often shortened to Great Plains IDEA—a collaboration of about twenty universities in the Plains region. Based out of Kansas State University, the group provides fully online graduate programs across several universities. Materials range from 1994 to 2015 and include meeting minutes, itineraries, board member information, education initiatives, and annual meeting information.

Additionally, there are web archives from 2001 to 2024. The current site, www.idea.edu, has been crawled since September 2024, and the previous site, www.gpidea.org, was saved by the Wayback Machine 398 times between September 25, 2001, and July 21, 2024. Web archives available at https://wayback.archive-it.org/5564/*/https://www.idea.edu/ and https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/www.gpidea.org.

The collection was created by Jane Franz Butel during her college education and her career.
Series 1 is divided into two sub-series: Articles about Jane Butel and Articles by Jane Butel. Articles about Jane Butel include numerous newspaper and magazine articles ranging from 1976-2014, covering interviews with Jane Butel as well as reviews of her cookbooks and featured recipes. Included are articles from the LA Times, New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as travel magazines, ladies magazines, and cooking magazines. The March 1996 issue of Bon Appetit names Butel's cooking school as one of the top four in the world. Articles by Jane Butel include clippings from newspapers and magazines written by Jane Butel between 1976-2008, covering topics such as chili and the history of Mexican cuisine. Included are recipes and stories appearing in Cooking Light, Food and Wine, Los Angeles Times, First for Women, and several publications from New Mexico.
Series 2 includes undated documents relating to publishing, press releases, research, and publicity tours for three of Butel’s cookbooks, Chili Madness, Tex Mex, and Hotter than Hell, as well as her unpublished manuscript, The Efficient Kitchen.
Series 3 includes documents relating to cooking schools, many of which Butel hosted for private corporations as team building events. Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, Hewlett Packard, Firestone and the Carlyle group are among her clients.
Series 4 contains documents on Butel’s consulting for corporations. Companies include Grand Union, Del Taco, Sargento and many others. Most include background information on revenue for these companies.
Series 5 has limited documentation about JBA, Jane Butel Associates.
Series 6 has product information and promotions for her business, Pecos Valley Spice Co. Yearly reports, status updates and demographic reports for the company are among the documents.
Series 7 contains letters sent to Jane Butel from 1965-2009, including fan mail ("nice letters") and thank you cards from school attendants. Also included is correspondence to and from magazines, newspapers, publicity companies and television stations.
Series 8 documents the early years of Butel’s career. Her work for the Public Service Co. of New Mexico, resumes, and extensive consumer papers from GE and Con Edison are included as well as papers relating to her work as Vice President of Consumer Affair and Marketing at American Express.
Series 9 contains copies of Con Edison speeches about cooking. Woman of Achievement award, KSU Entrepreneurship award, as well as New Mexico Woman award are included along with an invitation to the 1969 Presidential Inauguration.
Series 10 has Butel's coursework for her journalism and reporting classes as a student at Kansas State University.
Series 11 chronicles meetings and conferences Butel attended as a guest or honored award winner.
Series 12 contains extensive documentation about Butel’s publicity tours, advertisements, book promotions for things such as her books, as well as cooking schools and JBA. Included are contact lists, press releases and schedules.
Series 13 includes papers relating to organizing, planning, distributing, producing, and financing Jane Butel’s cooking show, as well as television show scripts and outlines.
Series 14 contains correspondence and contracts with Jane Butel’s Southwest Kitchen television show sponsors. They include the American Dairy Association, A.G. Russell Knives and Vitamax.
Series 15 contains correspondences with potential sponsors for Jane Butel’s cooking show. They include Con Agra Foods, Inc., Eastman Kodak, Gallo of Sonoma, General Electric, Land of Lakes, Mrs. Dash, and Southwest Airlines.
Series 16 has approximately 2,400 photographs taken of and by Butel, mainly of her cooking school and participants. There are also publicity photos, personal photos, and food photos. Only a few photographs are dated. Most of the people in the photographs are unidentified.
Series 17 has over 100 tapes of Butel's cooking shows, television appearances and feature stories. Of note are appearances on Regis and Kathy Lee, Emeril and Friends, and the Today Show. Filming for Butel's cooking shows, including Jane Butel's Southwest Kitchen, took place in 1998-2000. The series ran for seven years nationally on PBS as well as a channel out of Denver and one out of Dallas. The cooking shows are recorded on Betacam SP tapes.

Jimmy Rogers (1924-1997) was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica players who was born James A. Lane in Rule, Mississippi. An association of Robert Lockwood, Jr., Muddy Waters and Little Water, Rogers became known for his rhythm guitar and his South Side Chicago sound.
The bulk of the collection consists of photograph albums documenting Jimmy Rogers' later career, circa 1970-1979. Studio recordings, address books, business cards, mementos, awards and musical instruments are also included.
Some items of interest include typed lyric sheets of "Goos Pond" by Rogers who stated he started writing this work in 1941 at Vance, Mississippi and "Don't Start Me To Talking" by Rogers that is not dated; performance dates, times, costs, hotels, etc. for all dates from July 17, 1997 to December 1998 (Rogers died before he could complete all these dates); and photographs of The Aces, Frank Bandy, Scott Bradbury (Badboy Scotty), Lonnie Brooks, Eric Clapton, Frank Craig (Left Hand Frank), Ted Harvey, Walter Horton (Big Walter), Mick Jagger, Robert Johnson, S. P. Leary, Willie Mabon, McKinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters), Joseph William Perkins (Pinetop), Keith Richards, Willie Lee Smith (Big Eyes) and Cora Anna Walton (Koko Taylor).

The Joel Climenhaga Papers (1912-2001) consist primarily of his literary works and correspondence to and from family and friends.
The Biographical Series consist of two boxes which include Climenhaga's baby book, family genealogy, obituary, and memorial service program, and 1987 Kansas State University retirement tributes.
The Correspondence Series is made up of fourteen boxes and arranged alphabetically. Climenhaga was a prolific and voluminous writer. He corresponded with Mina Cooper, Carlos Cortez, Charles Jones, George Moberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Kenneth Patchen to name a few. Within the Charles Jones correspondence there are letters by LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson) and from people who opposed him agreeing with the NCAAP- these letters were signed by "a white Christian" or "a white, white, American." There are twenty-four folders of correspondence between Climenhaga and Fred Shaw. The two men planned to turn their correspondence into a book titled The Mephisto Addenda. Before this could manifest, Fred Shaw passed away. The Climenhaga's were good friends with Kenneth and Miriam Patchen and there is extensive correspondence between the two families. The sub-series "Correspondence to Poetry Magazines" is listed alphabetically by magazine title and consists of one box.
The sub-series "Correspondence Log" is arranged chronologically and is stored in eighteen boxes. It is similar to a journal as Climenhaga made personal entries on specific dates and if those dates corresponded with writing or receiving a letter, the letter was included. Names of those who Climenhaga corresponded includes Marlon Brando, Milton Bernard, John and Emma Climenhaga, Mina Cooper, Norman Fedder, Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen, George Savage, Fred Shaw, Wesley Van Tassel, Myrna Wolfe, and Kenneth Woodroofe. These letters were pulled from the alphabetical listing by Climenhaga. It is not known why Climenhaga separated these letters.
Literary Works is comprised of twenty-two boxes that contain Climenhaga's plays and poems, as well as fiction stories and essays. During his lifetime Climenhaga had at least seven columns in various newspapers and newsletters. Three of his columns One Man's Frontier, One Man's Journey, and Dear Good People often had the same material while the introduction was sometimes different or a sentence or two rearranged. One Man's Journey was also broadcasted on the KKSC Radio station at Kansas State University during the 1980s. Climenhaga was a notorious recycler of paper. He often used recycled paper which can be confusing to researchers. If researchers pay close attention, however, they just might find that "recycled" paper useful after all, as it could be a part of another story, poem, etc., whether written by Climenhaga or one of his many friends or colleagues. Climenhaga wrote his first poem at age six. By 1989, he had written approximately 2,500 poems of which 1,200 had been published in various magazines and journals. Volumes of his published poems include: The Age of Pollution; Belief in Chaos; Hawk and Chameleon; The Month of the Shadow on My Heart; Ninety-Nine Messages from Separate Places; None of this Really Matters a Great Deal Now; One Hundred and One Songs are Promised for Tomorrow; Preliminary Walk into the Sweat of Dying; Report on the Progress of the Bearded One's Homework; Spontaneity is a Deceiving God; and The Thirteenth Winter.
Subject Series is contained in seventeen boxes and is organized alphabetically. It includes names such as Charles Jackson Jones, Jr. who was married to artist Molly Ramolla, Kenneth Patchen, and Larry Smith. It also includes programs from plays produced, written, and directed by Climenhaga. Other programs include plays produced at the Purple Masque Theatre, Kansas State University; by the Pine Cone Players, Grand Lake, CO; and at UCLA.
The Photograph and Slides Series consists of one box and includes photos of the 1976 Pine Cone Players, Grand Lake, Colorado, production of Mark Twain. Photos taken at the Purple Masque Theatre, Kansas State University include the 1981 production of Kenneth Patchen's Don't Look Now, the 1989 production of Dust-Storm Wedding, and Climenhaga's own play the Marriage Wheel. The Slides consist of Kenneth Patchen's art poetry.
Comprised of seven boxes, the Media Series includes cassette tapes, reel to reel tapes, VHS videotapes, and computer disks. The computer disks contain some of Climenhaga's manuscripts that were incorporated in the Literary Works Series. The cassette tapes include interviews with Ben Nyberg and Jonathan Holden, 1985 letters from Charles Jones, and Climenhaga's 1980s One Man's Journey recorded at KKSU radio, Kansas State University. The reel to reel tapes includes several different readings from Patchen's Don't Look Now. The VHS tapes include the "50th Anniversary of the 1939 Pottstown High School Graduates" of interviews with Earl "Yogi" Storm, Dr. Joel Esner, and Raymond Elliott conducted by Bill Achatz. Climenhaga was unable to attend this anniversary gathering where he and others were inducted into the Alumni Honor Roll. Climenhaga created a video to be played at the anniversary program and it is included in this series. The tape Miriam Is Not Amused, a film by Kim Roberts, 1996, is a profile of the life of Miriam Patchen with interesting information about her husband Kenneth Patchen. The most interesting tapes in this series, however, are the interviews with Joel Climenhaga. The one that stands out the most is the one created by the Manhattan, Kansas Art Councils, 1992, where John Biggs interviews Climenhaga.
There are some very interesting interviews with Joel Climenhaga, especially the one filmed by the Manhattan, Kansas Arts Council titled Joel: Creative Profile. Another VHS tape of interest is Miriam Is Not Amused, a film by Kim Roberts, 1996. This is a profile of the life of Miriam Patchen with interesting information about her husband, Kenneth Patchen.
Scrapbooks are contained in one box. The most notable is the Marriage Wheel by Joel Climenhaga with his notes written on the sides of each page. Another item of interest is the 1983-1988 Travel Journal. Climenhaga kept notes of his summer travels, how many miles he traveled, where he traveled to, and when and where he stopped to eat.
The Oversize Series is made up of one box that includes art, art poetry, poetry, and program posters. Notable sketches in this series are the drawing of Joel Climenhaga by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the greeting to the Climenhagas from Carlos and Marianna Cortez in 1972. Kenneth Patchen's art poetry shows up in Lee Artz's "Passion for Peace," Peace Works, Mid-Peninsula Peace Center, Palo Alto, California and in Steven Ratiner's "The Picture Poems of Kenneth Patchen," California Living, 1983. There are four Kenneth Patchen poems included: "The Way Men Live Is a Life," 1944, "A Poem For Christmas," 1961, "What I'd Like To Know Is, 1967" and "A Mercy Filled and Defiant Xmas To All Still Worthy To Be Called Man," 1970. Program posters from the Kansas State University Purple Masque Theatre that are interesting include Mark Edward's Larger Than Life, 1978, Cindy Helfertstay's From Heaven to Hell, 1978, and Chloris Killian's 1981, The Dust-Storm Wedding. Other items of interest include Climenhaga's 1987 retirement certificate from Kansas State University and a letter from the then Provost, Owen J. Koeppe.
Stored in twenty boxes, the Printed Material includes Climenhaga's poetry magazines, published by him under his publishing company, Transient Press, and other research journals and books.

The John C. Reese papers include a 2013 curriculum vitae, a 2006 grant application, and reprinted publications from 1971 to 2015 of Kansas State University entomology professor John C. Reese. An expert in plant host resistance, Reese's papers document his career and associated research.

The John W. Minor papers are a part of the Arthur Capper Cooperative Research Collection, a resource for the study of agricultural cooperatives. This collection includes training programs, presentations, publications, annual reports, and artifacts related to John W. Minor’s career in cooperative agriculture, in particular his work with the regional cooperatives FAR-MAR-CO and Farmland Industries. Training programs and presentations include a variety of courses spanning accounting, business planning, grain storage, and professional development, many with handwritten notes and additions. Publications include assorted booklets and circulars relating to cooperative farming. Annual reports from Farmland Industries and FAR-MAR-CO (as well as its PROMARK system) range discontinuously from 1975 to 2001. Artifacts include paperweights and other commemorative items.

Collection includes documents, photographs, magazines, personal records, and other materials related to the life of Joseph Maxwell Tucker and his work in formulating and organizing the Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade in 1944 and 1945 which used Massey-Harris self-propelled combines to harvest wheat and other crops in a wartime environment of both scarce labor and rationing of raw materials. The combines were used to harvest crops in the Great Plains states, Pacific Northwest states, Arizona, and California.

The Subject Series is made up of five folders and includes an organization chart for VP & GSM Sales Department, Joseph Tucker's 1941 job application with the War Food Administration, a 1943 memorandum on the organization of the Massey-Harris Emergency Harvest Brigade, the 1943 proposal of the Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade, and two War Production Board certificates.

The Printed Material Series consists of fourteen folders and includes a calendar, four journal articles, a speech Joseph Tucker gave in 1946, and seven publications.

The Don & Kay Kluck Series is comprised of seven folders. This series pertains to The Kluck Brothers: Custom Harvesters (Emil Kluck, Ray Kluck, and Roy Kluck), the combines they purchased, and a few photographs.

The Photograph Series contains four folders. There are photographs of Lawrence John Letnes, Joseph Tucker, and a photograph of the medal, Order of the British Empire give to Joseph Tucker by King George VI in 1946.

The Oversize Printed Materials Subseries consists of three journal articles, three publications, and two advertising posters.

The Oversize Photographs Subseries has two photographs: 1) Proclamation by King George VI, 1946 September 9, that nominates and appoints Joseph Maxwell Tucker “to an Honorary Officer of the Civil Division of Our said and Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" and 2) a newspaper advertisement poking fun at Joseph Tucker titled “Retribution Overdue."

This collection offers insight into the operations of the now defunct Kansas Center for Rural Initiatives in the School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University from 1991–1999. The focus of the collection are the Rural Resource Directory and the program "Sustainable Manhattan." Documents for these two programs include: corrections, budgets, information sheets, correspondence, essays, newspaper clippings, and newsletters.

The collection is an amalgamation of Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska ephemera derived from multiple sources, dating 1940-2000. Maps, promotional brochures, and travel guides feature prominently.
Most materials pertain to the state of Kansas. Topics include plants, regions, municipalities, sites, programming, and transportation routes. Researchers interested in the state's highway and water resources, the tourist industry, and public services may find the collection especially beneficial. Highlights include a state-issued map illustrated by F. Richard, "Travel Kansas: Kansas, the Friendly State Welcomes You" (1940) and a Corps of Engineers - Kansas City District brochure pertaining to the construction of the Harlan County (Nebraska) Dam (May 1947).

The Kansas Iota chapter of Phi Kappa Theta was founded in 1921 and continues to be a presence at the university. These records contain meeting minutes from 1921 to 1996, attendance records, operating statements, and general fraternity history and activity. This collection also contains petitions from other university chapters asking to be inducted into the national fraternity. Box 1 contains meeting minutes from 1921-199. Box 2 contains the general records for the organization.